


Yield

by achrmy



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-19 21:49:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10648734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/achrmy/pseuds/achrmy
Summary: After her adopted family departed and the first orders of business were settled Sabine returned to Gar Saxon's body where she had left it, lying in the middle of her family’s frozen lake.





	1. Living

**Author's Note:**

> Lucasfilm and Disney own Star Wars

Gone was her panic present at the beginning of their fight. Gar Saxon wielded the Darksaber as a bludgeon, with none of the grace and finesse the blade required.

So Sabine was not surprised when she slashed into his right arm. He yelled, falling to his knees in pain. In one motion she brought both lightsabers up to his throat.

"Yield."

Gar Saxon returned her glare. "I'll never yield to you girl. You'll have to kill me."

She paused, then stepped away and extinguished both blades.

"That might be the Mandalorian way, but it's not my way. Not anymore." With a nod to her brother he moved forward to imprison Gar Saxon. She turned her back to her defeated opponent and walked away from him, across the ice, back to her family. 

The crack of a blaster rang out. But she wasn't in pain or dead. Confused, she turned around and saw Gar Saxon gasping and clutching at his smoldering chest armor before collapsing. Across from him she saw her mother's hand, outstretched and holding a smoking blaster.

"Mother…"

"No one threatens our family."

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After her adopted family departed and the first orders of business were settled Sabine returned to Gar Saxon's body where she had left it, lying in the middle of her family’s frozen lake.

She heard slow, rattling breaths; he was still alive, but not for much longer.

Her mother offered to fill him with another blaster bolt - in the head. Fenn Rau suggested leaving him to freeze. But Sabine called on an ancient Mandalorian tradition, dating from their people’s first clashes with the Jedi, that any Mandalorians present were bound to heal warriors wounded in battle, regardless of house and clan.

Her mother threw up her hands, asking aloud what kind of warrior the Rebels had created. Her brother asked her if she understood the risks.

Sabine stood her ground against Fenn Rau and the few members of her clan and family present to the truth. There would come a time when the Empire would end and on that day their enemies should not only fall in battle, they should be held accountable for their crimes before their victims and the entire galaxy.


	2. Stitching

A simple bacta patch was not going to save Viceroy Gar Saxon’s life. They nearly lost him, twice, but to the surprise of everyone, even Sabine herself, he did stabilize. He would always feel the wounds in his chest and arm, but with time his health did recover.

Now she and those few who knew the truth had to decide on what they had not thought of when the task seemed impossible: What to do with him? Sabine knew he would not remain secret and hidden on Clan Wren’s homeworld, Krownest. 

Finally, her brother suggested a barren world, worthless strategically and economically, but well known from Mandalorian history. A world where Tarre Vizla often meditated during his visits to Mandalorian space.

On a survey mission they saw that the world was indeed lifeless. Until they looked below the surface.

Countless luminescent bugs traced out trails of light on the walls and ceilings of underground caverns. Crisscrossing across the tunnels were roots without branches, leaves, or limbs. They often flickered with white light as those tiny creatures burrowed in and across the wood.

With her artistic eye Sabine noted these large roots. She curled her hand around one. A few glowing critters skittered over her fingers.

There was no need to bring so much heavy equipment and generators deep underground. A cage constructed of the bent and fashioned roots of this underworld - that would imprison Gar Saxon until his trial.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He had no knowledge of where they were taking him until he saw for himself. He was silent and sullen the entire journey to Tarre’s world save for two moments. He paused when he saw they were descending below ground. Fenn Rau blindfolded him before entering. They left behind the orange glow of this world’s sun. 

He walked with them without prodding until about halfway down. He planted his feet and turned in Sabine’s general direction.

“What exactly is the point of all this?”

“You heard us the first time.”

“I still do not understand. You will kill me all the same girl, but after wasting your resources keeping me hidden and locked away.”

“I’m not killing you. Keep moving.”

“At the rate you’re going about this I might just live longer than your father.”

 _Now_ Sabine wanted to hurt him. But Gar Saxon was not subtle. “I know what you’re doing.”

“Then you know our duel is not over.”

“No one, Mandalorian or otherwise, would say I didn’t best you.”

“Then finish this already girl.”

“You think I’m doing this because I want to shame you in front of all Mandalore? You tried to shoot me in the back.”

“And you let your mother do your work for you. A Mandalorian duel is only over when the victor, you, kills me, the defeated.” 

“Or you could yield.”

Gar Saxon barked out a laugh. “That will never happen.”

Fenn Rau grabbed Gar Saxon, turned him back down the tunnel to the right, and gave him a sharp shove in the middle of his back. “Move.” Silence returned and they started forward again.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They reached the chosen place, large, flat, clear, and dark; there were few tiny creatures down here. Sabine, Fenn Rau, and the two other escorts finished the last of their work on Gar Saxon’s cage. Their previous efforts had grown since their absence.

Sounds of bending and straining wood echoed down the tunnels. Dust shifted and floated in the dry air as they finished their work.

She removed Gar Saxon’s blindfold and they sealed him in a cage fashioned of roots, with a metal door.

There was more to be done, mainly setting up a semi-permanent habitat for whomever would have a shift as jailer. While they worked Sabine observed their prisoner through monitors. For a few hours Gar Saxon stalked the dark space of his cage, before finally settling down in the center. There he knelt.

Sabine noticed a change. She saw tiny white lights grow, move, and trace around the root mesh of Gar Saxon’s cage, slowly driving out the gloom. Time passed. More of the cage filled with light.

Everyone watched the monitors now in silence.

She pulled away and went to see for herself. 

The space was illuminated. Swarms of luminescent bugs crawled on the surfaces and into hollows of the organic bars. Stepping back, the light itself appeared to move. 

Gar Saxon knelt in the center through it all, silent, his eyes wide and his body still.


	3. Retching

Fury pumped through Sabine’s veins. Her friends and family in the rebellion had been decimated, the Ghost crew escaping only by the skin of their teeth. 

And her father was still a prisoner on Mandalore.

There was only one enemy she could let loose on at that moment. She went to Tarre’s world. She stormed up to Gar Saxon. He was kneeling in the center of his glowing cage.

“Start talking.”

He did. He answered her every question. He was slow, but paused only to wait for her or faltered when he did not know how to answer. Surprised at first Sabine gradually came to believe that Gar Saxon was being reliable with his answers. 

He did interject once. “What is happening out there?”

“Nothing I can really tell. No one’s asked about you if that’s what you mean. You’re still secret here…and safe.”

Her last question: “How do I get my father back?”

Gar Saxon began with a sigh. “Perhaps if your clan had arranged a prisoner exchange from the beginning a deal could have been made. But now that will never happen. Perhaps it never could. I was only a cog in the Imperial machine. Easily replaced.”

“What are you talking about?” Sabine realized she wanted to hear this.

“Events happened as they happened. I was where I found myself. There was nothing I could do. I had to serve the Empire.”

“You had to hold my father prisoner? You had to torment my mother and brother? You had to murder the Protectors?”

Gar Saxon said nothing in reply.

“This is all you have to show for yourself? Self-pity? You’re pathetic.” Sabine turned and left him.


	4. Breathing

A single, unarmed craft descended and landed next to the frozen lake where Gar Saxon had ‘died’.

His eldest daughter had come to recover her father’s body.

Sabine was troubled and all those who knew the truth with her. Even concerning bitter enemies Clan Wren would be dishonorable in the eyes of all Mandalorians to dismiss the girl without her family remains. But they had nothing to give her when she suddenly appeared. Their only two options were to reveal the truth in some fashion or send her away. 

Sabine had fought in many battles, against both Mandalorians and the Empire. She had seen family and friends die, killed by Clan Saxon. She remembered her grief.

Right now Sabine was tired and angry. She was favorable toward the latter of the two available options. 

Until she saw Sia Saxon.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sabine and the others who knew the truth guided Gar Saxon’s daughter into a shuttle. All were silent during the travel to Tarre’s world and the entire journey underground. Sabine saw her trembling; the girl likely believed they were imprisoning her in this dark place, but she bore the uncertainty in silence.

When they finally saw one another Gar Saxon stood up at once. Sia cried out. She ran. Father and daughter embraced one another around the glowing roots between them.


	5. Healing

A member of Clan Saxon and furthermore close family now numbered among the few who knew that the once loyal vassal of the Galactic Empire, Gar Saxon, still lived.

Sabine and the others who knew the truth began their difficult negotiations with Sia Saxon. The tense discussions dragged on, but made gradual ongoing progress. 

Until Gar Saxon’s daughter requested that her younger sisters also know the truth.

“No.” Sabine said. “It’s difficult enough for us to trust you yourself with this knowledge, but any others of your clan, especially young children…” She shook her head. “That simply cannot happen.”

“Lady Wren, they are suffering. They must know their father is alive.”

“Think clearly for a moment. What you’re asking makes no sense for our purposes.”

“Is there any condition whatsoever where you would allow them to know the truth?”

Sabine paused to think. “If they were to be brought here and remain here in secret, then yes, they could know the truth and see their father.”

Gar Saxon’s daughter went silent for more than a moment, as if seriously considering Clan Wren’s offer. Gar Saxon interjected.

“Absolutely not.”

“Father…”

Fenn Rau raised his voice. “Your daughter is the only one we are negotiating with. Stay silent.” 

Gar Saxon ignored him. He stood up and continued. “My daughters will not be combatants in a pointless rebellion.” He slammed he handcuffed fists onto the table. “Or pawns in your civil war!”

“They’re already becoming pawns!” His daughter countered.

“Then please, do what I should have done. Keep them safe, but not here. They’ll be prisoners.”

“Father, do you know what it will be like for them to know you’re alive, what it’s like for me? I still have a hard time believing. It’s like…it’s like you’re back from the dead.”

She turned back to the others. “Do you promise, on your clan’s honor, that my sisters will be treated well and fairly while they are here? That they will not be recruited into any fight, galactic or Mandalorian.” She looked up only at Sabine. “That though they must stay on this world, there won’t be any cages for them…and that they’ll be able to continue peaceful education? And when my father’s survival is revealed, that his children will be free to go?”

Sabine exchanged looks with the others present. Fenn Rau, to no one’s surprise, frowned. But no one raised vocal objection. 

“Yes.” Sabine said. “We will supply and guarantee those conditions. When you and your sisters meet our conditions then they may know about your father’s survival.” 

Gar Saxon’s daughter took a breath and turned back to him. “Father, as head of our clan here I’m going to make a decision with or without you. But I still want your blessing.”

She let the next moment of silence drag on. 

Then…

“You have it. You have…my blessing.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bringing the younger Saxon girls to Tarre’s world without warning to them or Clan Saxon was no easy task. Procuring the two youngest was the simple matter of their elder sister escorting them to a ship. Reaching the other two was complicated by the matter of their attendance at the Imperial Academy on Mandalore. But between Sabine’s knowledge and Sia’s bond of trust they separated the two preteen girls from their handlers during an Imperial exercise.

Grumbles, whines, and some yelling changed to shrieks, gasps, and smatterings of laughter. The cage briefly opened and five joyful girls joined Gar Saxon.

In the meantime, Sabine and the others with her set up simple living arrangements for them. 

The day ran long. The girls finally began to rest. Sabine prepared to depart. She would return, but not anytime soon.

Before leaving for the surface Sabine looked down the way to Gar Saxon. She saw him alone, kneeling over in the center of his glowing cage, his face in his hands.


	6. Yielding

Months stretched on. The Empire threatened. The Rebellion endured. 

Sabine Wren made one of her visits to Tarre’s world. She knelt once more across from Gar Saxon. He mirrored her on his side of the cage. 

During this visit quiet reigned. Only once did their silence break.

Gar Saxon spoke, soft, but clear.

“I yield.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lucasfilm and Disney own Star Wars
> 
> This tale is both canon and non-canon until the release of season 4 of Star Wars Rebels


End file.
